Consumer confidence in safe online holiday
shopping down as scams become more sophisticated
TEMPE,
Ariz. and PRAGUE,
Nov. 2,
2023 /PRNewswire/ -- A new global consumer survey
from Norton, a consumer Cyber Safety brand of Gen™ (NASDAQ: GEN),
revealed online shopping scam victims lost $1500 on average during the holiday season.
The 2023 Holiday Norton Cyber Safety Insights Report, which
explores consumers' experiences and attitudes surrounding digital
safety during the holiday season, revealed that out of the
consumers targeted by holiday scams, half fell victim. Now with
nearly 98% of consumers planning to do at least some of their
holiday shopping online, more than half (56%) say they are still
worried about falling victim to cybercrime, AI shopping scams or
third-party retailers.
"The holiday shopping season is a busy time
for cybercriminals. During the hustle of the holiday season,
shoppers often fall victim to scams as they look for discounts on
popular holiday gifts, make last-minute purchases and overlook
suspicious activity," said Iskander
Sanchez-Rola, Director of Privacy Innovation for Norton.
"Avoid the cost of falling victim to cybercriminals by knowing how
to recognize a scam and keeping vigilant for suspicious links and
unfamiliar activity in your bank and credit card accounts."
Cybercriminals primarily targeted victims during the holiday
season by connecting through social media platforms (41%),
third-party websites (35%), emails (32%), phone calls (28%) and
text messages (26%). Prevalent holiday scams included online
shopping scams (40%) and phishing scams (37%), with respondents
also noting high instances of postal delivery scams (31%) and gift
card scams (30%).
With consumer confidence in the ability to shop online safely
dropping from 89% to 72% compared to last year, more shoppers are
taking measures to protect themselves. This year, 67% agreed not to
make purchases using unsecured or public Wi-Fi. Surprisingly, while
brick-and-mortar retail has been swimming against the current of
the convenience of online shopping, 60% of shoppers say they will
do at least some of their shopping in a retail store rather than
online.
Norton experts recommend shoppers take the following steps and
precautions to protect themselves from cybercrime this holiday
season:
- Never buy from unrecognized retailers. Check details of
unfamiliar stores, ratings and reviews of resellers and be wary
when you see too many five-star reviews, especially in a short
period of time, as this could indicate fake ratings.
- Check all websites start with https to help ensure they are
secure, especially the payment pages.
- Avoid the allure of deals and offers that seem too good to be
true, like must-have gifts at extremely low prices. Remember that
if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.
- Use a Virtual Private Network (VPN), such as Norton Secure VPN,
to help protect your online privacy and keep personal and financial
information secure when shopping or using apps on public
Wi-Fi.
- Create strong, unique passwords for shopping sites, email
accounts and financial apps. Keep track of passwords by using a
password manager, such as Norton Password Manager.
- Install device protection software, such as Norton 360 Deluxe,
to help protect and alert you of potential scams.
Norton helps people shop safely online with products like Norton
Genie, a free AI-powered scam detection app for messages, social
media posts, email or websites. Norton Genie provides a fast, easy
and free way to check if a message, like an email offering a
holiday discount, is a scam. Genie can also review suspicious web
links, such as those that direct people to track deliveries for
holiday gifts, offer gift cards or direct people to fake
third-party websites, and confirm if the text is malicious. Genie
is powered by advanced AI, so the more people use it, the smarter
it gets at detecting new scams.
For access to full results of the 2023 Norton Cyber Safety
Insights Report: Special Release: Holiday, please visit
https://newsroom.gendigital.com/norton-cyber-safety-report-2023.
About the 2023 Norton Cyber Safety Insights Report: Special
Release – Holiday
The study was conducted online by Dynata
on behalf of Gen from August 17th to
September 4th, 2023, among 1,001 adults ages 18 and older.
Data are weighted where necessary by age, gender, and region, to be
nationally representative.
About Norton
Norton is a leader in Cyber Safety, and part of Gen™ (NASDAQ: GEN),
a global company dedicated to powering Digital Freedom with a
family of trusted consumer brands. Norton empowers millions of
individuals and families with award-winning protection for their
devices, online privacy, and identity. Norton products and services
are certified by independent testing organizations including
AV-TEST, AV-Comparatives, and SE Labs. Norton is a founding member
of the Coalition Against Stalkerware. Learn more at
www.norton.com.
Malea
Lamb-Hall
|
Catherine
Lockwood
|
Gen
Malea.LambHall@GenDigital.com
|
Edelman for
Gen
|
|
Catherine.Lockwood@edelman.com
|
|
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SOURCE Gen Digital Inc.